52 



y 2 - 



.LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

863 BROADWAY. 
JVo. 36. 

§ t0pte|> and JttlfiUttttnt. 

» » . 

SPEECH OF A. H. STEPHENS, OF GEORGIA, 

(vice-president op the so-called confederate states) 

IX OPPOSITION TO SECESSION IN 1860. 



ADDRESS OF E. W. GANTT, OF ARKANSAS, 

(brigadier-general in the confederate army) 
IN FAVOR OF REUNION IN 1863. 




HOLMAN. PRINTER. CORNER OF CENTRE AND WHITE .STREETS. 

1863. 



f4s-s 






1d> 



LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
NEW YORK. 



The objects of the Society are expressed in the following Resolution, 
formally adopted by the unanimous vote of the Society, at its 
first meeting, February 14, 1863. 

Resolved, That the object of this Organization is, and shall be, confined to 
the distribution of Journals and Documents of unquestionable and uncondi- 
tional loyalty throughout the United States, and particularly in the Armies 
now engaged in the suppression of the Rebellion, and to counteract, as far as 
practicable, the efforts now being made by the enemies of the Government 
and the advocates of a disgraceful peace to circulate journals and documents 
of a disloyal character. 



Persons sympathizing with the objects of this Society, and wishing 
to contribute funds for its support, may address 

MORRIS KETCHUM, Esq., Treasurer, 

40 Exchange Place. 

Receipts will be promptly returned. 
'05 









LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
863 BROADWAY. 

JVo. 36. 

PROPHECY AND FULFILLMENT. 



SPEECH OF A. H. STEPHENS, OF GEORGIA, 

(Vice-President of so-called Confederate States) 
IN OPPOSITION TO SECESSION. 

DELIVERED NOVEMBER 14, 1860. 



Fellow- Citizens : — I appear before you to-night, at the request 
of members of the Legislature and others, to speak of matters of 
the deepest interest that can possibly concern us all of an earthly 
character. There is nothing— no question or subject connected' 
with this life — that concerns a free people so intimately as that of 
the Government under which they live. We are now, indeed, 
surrounded by evils. Never, since I entered upon the public stasre, 
has the country been so environed with difficulties and dangers 
that threatened the public peace and the very existence of society 
as now. I do not now appear before you at my own instance. It 
is not to gratify desire of my own that I am here. Had I consult- 
ed my own ease and pleasure I should not be before you ; but, be- 
lieving that it is the duty of every good citizen to give his counsels 
and views whenever the country is in danger, as to the best poli- 
cy to be pursued, I am here. For these reasons, and these only, 
do I bespeak a calm, patient, and attentive hearing. 



My object is not to stir up strife, but to allay it ; not to appeal 
to your passions, but to your reason. Good governments can nev- 
er be built up or sustained by the impulse of passion. I wish to 
address myself to your good sense, to your good judgment, and if, 
after hearing, you disagree, let us agree to disagree, and part as 
we met, friends. We all have the same object, the same interest. 
That people should disagree in republican governments, upon ques- 
tions of public policy, is natural. That men should disagree upon 
all matters connected with human investigation, whether relating 
to science or human conduct, is natural. Hence, in free govern- 
ments, parties will arise. But a free people should express their 
different opinions with liberality and charity, with no acrimony 
toward those of their fellows, when honestly and sincerely given. 
These are my feelings to-night. 

Let us, therefore, reason together. It is not my purpose to say 
aught to wound the feelings of any individual who may be present ; 
and if, in the ardency with which I shall express my opinions, I 
shall say any thing which may be deemed too strong, let it be set 
down to the zeal with which I advocate my own convictions. 
There is with me no intention to irritate or offend. 

The first question that presents itself is, shall the people of the 
South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. 
Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States ? My countrymen, 
I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think that they 
ought. In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally 
chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for any State to sepa- 
rate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in main- 
taining the Constitution of the country. To make a point of re. 
sistance to the Government, to withdraw from it because a man 
has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are 
pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to 
support it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to 
the Presidency, and that too in accordance with the prescribed 
forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the Gov- 
ernment without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument 
ourselves — withdraw ourselves from it ? Would we not be in the 
wrong? Whatever fate is to befall this country, let it never be 
laid to the charge of the people of the South, and especially to the 
people of Georgia, that we were untrue to our national engage- 



ments. Let the fault and the wrong rest upon others. If all 
our hopes are to be blasted, if the Republic is to go down, 
let us be found to the last moment standing on the deck, with 
the Constitution of the United States waving over our heads. 
Let the fanatics of the North break the Constitution, if such is 
their fell purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. I shall 
speak presently more of their acts ; but let not the South — let us 
not be the ones to commit the aggression. We went into the elec- 
tion with this people. The result was different from what we 
wished ; but the election has been constitutionally held. Were 
we to make a point of resistance to the Government and go out 
of the Union on that account, the record would be made up here- 
after against us. 

But it is said Mr. Lincoln's policy and principles are against 
the Constitution, and that if he carries them out it will be destruc- 
tive of our rights. Let us not anticipate a threatened evil. 
If he violates the Constitution, then will come our time to act. 
Do not let us break it because, forsooth, he may. If he does, 
that is the time for us to strike. I think it would be injudicious 
and unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lin- 
coln will do any thing to jeopard our safety or security, whatever 
may be his spirit to do it ; for he is bound by the constitutional 
checks which are thrown around him, which at this time render 
him powerless to do any great mischief. This shows the wisdom 
of our system. The President of the United States is no emperor, 
no dictator — he is clothed with no absolute power. He can do 
nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress. The House 
of Representatives is largely in the majority against him. 

In the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a major- 
ity of four against him. This, after the loss of Bigler, Fitch, and 
others, by the unfortunate dissensions of the National Democratic 
party in their States. Mr. Lincoln can not appoint an officer 
without the consent of the Senate — he can not form a cabinet 
without the same consent. He will be in the condition of George 
III. (the embodiment of Toryism), who had to ask the Whigs to 
appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet ut- 
terly opposed to his views ; and so Mr. Lincoln will be compelled 
to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if the Democracy 
of that body choose to put him on such terms. He will be com- 



pelled to do tins or let the Government stop, if the National Dem- 
ocratic men — for that is their name at the North — the conservative 
men in the Senate, should so determine. Then how can Mr. Lin- 
coln obtain a cabinet which, would aid him, or allow him to vio- 
late the Constitution? 

Why, then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of this Union when 
his hands are tied, when he can do nothing against us? I have 
heard it mooted that no man in the State of Georgia, who is true 
to her interests, could hold office under Mr. Lincoln. But, I ask, 
who appoints to office? Not the President alone ; the Senate has 
to concur. No man can be appointed without the consent of the 
Senate. Should any man then refuse to hold office that was given 
to him by a Democratic Senate ? [Mr. Toombs interrupted and 
said if the Senate was Democratic it was for Mr. Breckinridge.] 
Well, then, continued Mr. S., I apprehend no man could be justly 
considered untrue to to the interests of Georgia, or incur any dis- 
grace, if the interests of Georgia required it, to hold an office 
which a Breckinridge Senate had given him, even though Mr. Lin- 
coln should be President. 

I trust, my countrymen, you will be still and silent. I am ad- 
dressing your good sense. I am giving you my views in a calm 
and dispassionate manner, and if any of you differ with me, 
you can, on any other occasion, give your views as I am doing 
now, and let reason and true patriotism decide between us. In 
my judgment, I say, under such circumstances, there would be no 
possible disgrace for a Southern man to hold office. No man will 
be suffered to be appointed, I have no doubt, who is not true to 
the Constitution, if Southern Senators are true to their trusts, as 
I can not permit myself to doubt that they will be. 

My honorable friend who addressed you last night (Mr Toombs), 
and to whom I listened with the profoundcst attention, asks if we 
would submit to Black Republican rule ? I say to you and to him, 
as a Georgian, I never would submit to any Black Republican ag- 
gression upon our constitutional rights. I will never consent my- 
self, as much as I admire this Union for the glories of the past, 
or the blessings of the present— as much as it has done for the 
people of all these States — as much as it has done for civilization 
— as much as the hopes of the world hang upon it, 1 would never 
submit to aggression upon my rights to maintain it longer ; and 



if they cannot be maintained in the Union, standing on tlie 
Georgia platform, where I have stood from the time of its adop- 
tion, I would be in favor of disrupting every tie which binds the 
States together. 

I will have equality for Georgia and for the citizens of Georgia 
in this Union, or I will look for new safeguards elsewhere. This 
is my position. The only question now is, can they be secured in 
the Union ? That is what I am counseling with you to-night 
about. Can it be secured ? In my judgment it may be, but it 
may not be ; but let us do all we can, so that in the future, if the 
worst come, it may never be said we were negligent in doing our 
duty to the last. 

My countrymen, I am not of those who believe this Union has 
been a curse up to this time. True men, men of integrity, enter- 
tain different views from me on this subject. I do not question 
their right to do so : I would not impugn their motives in so do- 
ing. Nor will I undertake to say that this Government of our 
fathers is perfect. There is nothing perfect in this world of a hu- 
man origin. Nothing connected with human nature, from man 
himself to any of his works. You may select the wisest and best 
men for your judges, and yet how many defects are there in the 
administration of justice? You may select the wisest and best 
men for your legislators, and yet how many defects are apparent 
in your laws ? And it is so in our Government. 

But that this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, 
comes nearer the objects of all good governments than any other 
on the face of the earth is my settled conviction. Contrast it now 
with any on the face of the earth. [England, said Mr. Toombs.] 
— England, my friend says. Well, that is the next best, I grant; 
but I think we have improved upon England. Statesmen tried 
their apprentice hand on the Government of England, and then 
ours was made. Ours sprung from that, avoiding many of its 
defects, taking most of the good and leaving out many of its errors, 
and from the whole constructing and building up this model Re- 
public — the best which the history of the world gives any account 
of. 

Compare, my friends, this Government witli that of Spain, Mex- 
ico, the South American Republics, Germany, Ireland — are there 
any sons of that down-trodden nation here to night ? — Prussia, or, 



if you travel further east, to Turkey or China. "Where will you 
go, following the sun in its circuit round our globe, to find a gov- 
ernment that better protects the liberties of its people, and secures 
to then* the blessings we enjoy ? I think that one of the evils that 
beset us is a surfeit of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless bles- 
sings for which we are ungrateful. "We listened to my honorable 
friend who addressed you last night (Mr. Toombs), as he recounted 
the evils of this Government. 

The first was the fishing bounties, paid mostly to the sailors of 
New England. Our friend stated that forty-eight years of our 
Government was under the administration of Southern Presidents. 
Well, these fishing bounties began under the rule of a southern 
President, I believe. No one of them during the whole forty- 
eight years ever set his Administration against the principle or 
policy of them. It is not for me to say whether it was a wise pol- 
icy in the beginning ; it probably was not, and I have nothing to 
say in its defense. But the reason given for it was to encourage 
our young men to go to sea and learn to manage ships. We had 
at the time but a small navy. It was thought best to encourage 
a class of our people to become acquainted with seafaring life, to 
become sailors — to man our naval ships. It requires practice to 
walk the deck of a ship, to pull the ropes, to furl the sails, to go 
aloft, to climb the mast ; and it was thought, by offering this 
bounty, a nursery might be formed in which young men would 
become perfected in these arts, and it applied to one section of the 
country as well as to any other. 

The result of this was that in the war of 1812 our sailors, many 
of whom came from this nursery, wjere equal to any that England 
brought against us. At any rate, no small part of the glories of 
that war were gained by the veteran tars of America, and the ob- 
ject of these bounties was to foster that branch of the national de- 
fense. My opinion is, that whatever may have been the reason 
at first, this bounty ought to be discontinued — the reason for it, at 
first, no longer exists. A bill for this object did pass the Senate 
the last Congress I was in, to which my honorable friend contribu- 
ted greatly, but it was not reached in the House of Representa- 
tives. I trust that he will yet see that he may with honor contin- 
ue his connection with the Government, and that his eloquence, 
unrivaled in the Senate, may hereafter, as heretofore, be displayed 



in having this bounty, so obnoxious to him, repealed and wiped off 
from the statute-book. 

The next evil which my friend complained of was the Tariff. 
Well, let us look at that for a moment. About the time I com- 
menced noticing public matters, this question was agitating the 
country almost as fearfully as the slave question now is. In 1832, 
when I was in college, South Carolina was ready to nullify or se- 
cede from the Union on this account. And what have we seen ? 
The Tariff no longer distracts the public counsels. Reason has 
triumphed ! The present Tariff was voted for by Massachusetts 
and South Carolina. The lion and the lamb lay down together 
— every man in the Senate and House from Massachusetts and 
South Carolina, I think, voted for it, as did my honorable friend 
himself. And if it be true, to use the figure of speech of my hon- 
orable friend, that every man in the North that works in iron and 
brass and wood has his muscle strengthened by the protection 
of the Government, that stimulant was given by his vote, and I 
believe every other Southern man. So we ought not to complain 
of that. 

Mr. Toombs — The Tariff assessed the duties. 

Mr. Stephens — Yes, and Massachusetts with unanimity voted 
with the South to lessen them, and they were made just as low as 
Southern men asked them to be, and that is the rates they are 
now at. If reason and argument, with experience, produced such 
changes in the sentiments of Massachusetts from 1832 to 1857, on 
the subject of the Tariff, may not like changes be effected there 
by the same means — reason and argument, and appeals to patriot- 
ism on the present vexed question ? And who can say that by 1875 
or 1890 Massachusetts may not vote with South Carolina and 
Georgia upon all those questions that now distract the country, 
and threaten its peace and existence. I believe in the power and 
efficiency of truth, in the omnipotence of truth, and its ultimate 
triumph when properly wielded. 

Another matter of grievance alluded to by my honorable friend 
was the Navigation Laws. This policy was also commenced under 
the Administration of one of these Southern Presidents who ruled 
so well, and has been continued through all of them since. The 
gentleman's views of the policy of these laws and my own do not 
disagree. We occupied the same ground in relation to them in 



Congress. It is not my purpose to defend them now. But it is 
proper to state some matters connected with their origin. 

One of the objects was to build up a commercial American ma- 
rine by giving American bottoms the exclusive carrying trade be- 
tween our own ports. This is a great arm of national power. 
This object was accomplished We have now an amount of ship- 
ping, not only coastwise, but to foreign countries, which puts us in 
the front rank of the nations of the world. England can no long- 
er be styled the Mistress of the Seas. What American is not 
proud of the result? Whether those laws should be continued is 
another question. But one thing is certain : no President, North- 
ern or Southern, has ever yet recommended their repeal. And my 
friend's efforts to get them repealed were met with but little favor, 
North or South. 

These, then, were the true main grievances or grounds, of com- 
plaint against the general system of our Government and its 
workings — I mean the administration of the Federal Government. 
As to the acts of the Federal States I shall speak presently ; but 
these three were the main ones used against the common head. 
Now, suppose it be admitted that all of these arc evils in the sys- 
tem ; do they overbalance and outweigh the advantages and great 
good which this same government affords in a thousand innumera- 
ble ways that can not be estimated ? Have we not at the South, 
as well as the North, grown great, prosperous, and happy under 
its operations ? Has any part of the world ever shown such rapid 
progress in the development of wealth, and all the material re- 
sources of national power and greatness, as the Southern States 
have under the General Government, notwithstanding all its de- 
fects ? 

Mr. Toombs — In spite of it. 

Mr. Stephens — My honorable friend says we hare, in spite of 
the General Government ; that without it, I suppose he thinks, we 
might have done as well, or perhaps better, than we have done 
this in spite of it. That may be and it may not lie : but the great 
fact that we have grown great and powerful under the Govern- 
ment as ii exists — there is no conjecture or speculation about that; 
il b tan da oul bold, high, and prominent, like your Stone Mountain, 
to which the gentleman alluded in illustrating home facts in his 
record this greal fact of our unrivaled prosperity in the Union 



as it is admitted ; whether all this is in spite of the Government 
■ — whether we of the South would have been better off without the 
Government — is, to say the least, problematical. On the one side 
we can only put the fact against speculation and conjecture on the 
other. But even as a question of speculation I differ with my 
distinguished friend. 

What we would have lost in border wars without the Union, or* 
what we have gained simply by the peace it has secured, no esti- 
mate can be made of. Our foreign trade, which is the foundation 
of all our prosperity, has the protection of the navy, which drove 
the pirates from the waters near our coast, where they had been 
buccaneering for centuries before, and might have been still had 
it not been for the American Navy under the command of such 
spirits as Commodore Porter. Now that the coast is clear, that 
our commerce flows freely outwardly, we can not well estimate 
how it would have been under other circumstances. The influ- 
ence of the Government on us is like that of the atmosphere 
around us. Its benefits are so silent and unseen that they are sel- 
dom thought of or appreciated. 

We seldom think of the single element of oxygen in the air we 
breathe, and yet let this simple, unseen, and unfelt agent be with- 
drawn, this life-giving element be taken away from this all-per- 
vading fluid around us, and what instant and appalling changes 
would take place in all organic creation. 

It may be that we are all that we are in " spite of the General 
Government," but it may be that without it we should have been 
far different from what we are now. It is true there is no equal 
part of the earth with natural resources superior perhaps to ours. 
That portion of this country known as the Southern States, 
stretching from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, is fully equal 
to the picture drawn by the honorable and eloquent Senator last 
night, in all natural capacities. But how many ages and centu- 
ries passed before these capacities were developed to reach this 
advanced age of civilization ? There these same hills, rich in ore, 
same rivers, same valleys and plains, are as they have been since 
they came from the hand of the Creator ; uneducated and un- 
civilized man roamed over them for how long no history informs 
us. 

It was only under our institutions that they could be developed. 



10 



Their development is the result of the enterprise of our people 
under operations of the Government and institutions under which 
we have lived. Even our people, without these, never would have 
done it The organization of society has much to do with the 
development of the natural resources of any country or any land. 
The institutions of a people, political and moral, are the matrix 
in which the germ of their organic structure quickens into life- 
takes root and develops in form, nature, and character. Our in- 
stitutions constitute the basis, the matrix, from which spring all 
our characteristics of development and greatness. Look at 
Greece There is the same fertile soil, the same blue sky, the 
same inlets and harbors, the same ^gean, the same Olympus ; 
there is the same land where Homer sung, where Pericles spoke ; 
it is in nature the same old Greece— but it is living Greece no 

more. , 

Descendants of the same people inhabit the country ; yet what 
is the reason of this mighty difference? In the midst of present 
degradation we see the glorious fragments of ancient works of art 
-temples with ornaments and inscriptions that excite wonder 
and admiration— the remains of a once high order of civilization 
which have outlived the language they spoke— upon them all 
Ichabod is written— their glory has departed. Why is tins so ? 
I answer, their institutions have been destroyed. These were but 
the fruits of their forms of government, the matrix from which 
their grand development sprung, and when once the institutions 
of a people have been destroyed, there is no earthly power that 
can bring back the Promethean spark to kindle them here again, 
any more than in that ancient land of eloquence, poetry, and 

song. 

The same may be said of Italy. Where is Rome, once the mis- 
tress of the world ? There arc the same seven hills now, the same 
soil, the same natural resources ; nature is the same, but what a 
ruin of human greatness meets the eye of the traveler throughout 
the length and breadth of that most down-trodden land ! Why 
have not the people of that Heaven-favored clime the spirit that 
animated their fathers ? Why this sad difference ? 

It is the destruction of her institutions that has caused it; and, 
my countrymen, if we shall in an evil hour rashly pull down and 
destroy those institutions which the patriotic band of our fathers 



11 

labored so long and so hard to build up, and which have done so 
much for us and the world, who can venture the prediction that 
similar results will not ensue ? Let us avoid it if we can. I trust 
the spirit is among us that will enable us to do it. Let us not 
rashly try the experiment, for, if it fails, as it did in Greece and 
Italy, and in the South American Republics, and in every other 
place wherever liberty is once destroyed, it may never be restored 
to us again. 

There are defects in our government, errors in administration, 
and shortcomings of many kinds ; but in spite of these defects and 
errors, Georgia has grown to be a great State. Let us pause here 
a moment. In 1850 there was a great crisis, but not so fearful as 
this ; for, of all I have ever passed through, this is the most peril- 
ous, and requires to be met with the greatest calmness and de- 
liberate. 

There were many among us in 1850 zealous to go at once out 
of the Union, to disrupt every tie that binds us together. Now, 
do you believe, had that policy been carried out at that time, we 
would have been the same great people that we are to-day ? It 
may be that we would, but have you any assurance of that fact? 
Would you have made the same advancement, improvement, and 
progress in all that constitutes material wealth and prosperity that 
we have. 

I notice, in the Comptroller-General's report, that the taxable 
property of Georgia is $670,000,000 and upward, an amount not 
far from double what it was in 1850. I think I may venture to 
say that for the last ten years the material wealth of the people 
of Georgia has been nearly if not quite doubled. The same may 
be said of our advance in education, and every thing that marks 
our civilization. Have we any assurance that, had we regarded 
the earnest but misguided patriotic advice, as I think, of some of 
that day, and disrupted the ties which bind us to the Union, we 
would have advanced as we have ? I think not. Well, then, let 
us be careful now before we attempt any rash experiment of this 
sort. I know that there are friends — whose patriotism I do not 
intend to question — who think this Union a curse, and that we 
would be better off without it. I do not so think. If we can 
bring about a correction of those evils which threaten — and I am 
not without hope that this may yet be done — this appeal to go out, 



12 

with all tne provisions for good that accompany it, I look upon it 
as a great and I fear a fatal temptation. 

When I look around and see our prosperity in every thing, 
agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of edu- 
cation, physical and mental, as well as moral advancement, and 
our colleges, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, 
without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain 
in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to — let 
us not too readily yield to this temptation — do so. Our first pa- 
rents, the great progenitors of the human race, were not without 
a like temptation when in the garden of Eden. They were led to 
believe that their condition would be bettered — that their eyes 
would be opened — and that they would become as gods. They in 
an evil hour yielded — instead of becoming gods, they only saw 
their own nakedness. ' 

I look upon this country with our institutions as the Eden of 
the world, the paradise of the universe. It may be that out of it 
we may become greater and more prosperous, but I am candid and 
sincere in telling you that I fear if we rashly evince passion, and 
without sufficient cause shall take that step, that instead of be- 
coming greater or more peaceful, prosperous, and happy — instead 
of becoming gods, we will become demons, and at no distant day 
commence cutting one another's throats. This is my apprehension. 
Let us, therefore, whatever we do, meet these difficulties, great as 
they are, like wise and sensible men, and consider them in the 
light of all the consequences which may attend our action. Let 
us see first clearly where the path of duty leads, and then we may 
nol fear to tread therein. 

I come now to the main question put to me, and on which my 
counsel has been asked. That is, what the presenl Legislature 
should do in view of the dangers that threaten us, and the wrongs 
that have been done us by several of our Confederate States in 
the Union, by the acts of their legislatures nullifying the fugitive 
slave law. and in direct disregard of their constitutional obli- 
gations. Whal I shall say will not be in the spirit of dictation : 
it will be simply my own judgment for what it is worth. It pro- 
ceeds from d strong conviction that according to it our rights, in- 
terests, and honor — our present safety and future security can be 
maintained without vet looking to the last resort, the " ultima ra- 



13 

tio regum." That should not be looked to until all else fails. 
That may come. On this point I am hopeful, but not sanguine. 
But let us use every patriotic effort to prevent it while there is 
ground for hope. 

If any view that I may present, in your judgment, be inconsis- 
tent with the best interests of Georgia, I ask you, as patriots, not 
to regard it. After hearing me and others whom you have ad- 
vised with, act in the premises according to your own conviction 
of duty as patriots. I speak now particularly to the members of 
the legislature present. There are, as I have said, great dangers 
ahead. Great dangers may come from the election I have spoken 
of. If the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his Republican associates 
shall be carried out, or attempted to be carried out, no man in 
Georgia will be more willing or ready than myself to defend our 
rights, interest, and honor at every hazard and to the last extrem- 
ity. 

What is this policy ? It is, in the first place, to exclude us, by 
an act of Congress, from the Territories with our slave property. 
He is for using the power of the General Government against the 
extension of our institutions. Our position on this point is and 
ought to be, at all hazards, for perfect equality between all the 
States, and the citizens of all the States, in the Territories, under 
the Constitution of the United States. If Congress should ex- 
ercise its power against this, then I am for standing where Geor- 
gia planted herself in 1850. These were plain propositions which 
were then laid down in her celebrated platform as sufficient for 
the disruption of the Union if the occasion should ever come : on 
these Georgia has declared that she will go out of the Union ; and 
for these she would be justified by the nations of the earth in so 
doing. 

I say the same ; I said it then ; I say it now, if Mr. Lincoln's 
policy should be carried out. I have told you that I do not think 
his bare election sufficient cause : but if his policy should be car- 
ried out in violation of any of the principles set forth in the 
Georgia platform, that would be such an act of aggression which 
ought to bo met as therein provided for. If his policy shall be 
carried out in repealing or modifying the Fugitive Slave law so 
as to weaken its efficacy, Georgia has declared that she will, in 
the last resort, disrupt the ties of the Union, and I say so too. I 



14 

stand upon the Georgia platform, and upon every plank, and say, 
if these aggressions therein provided for take place — I say to you 
and to the people of Georgia, keep your powder dry, and let your 
assailants then have lead, if need be. I would wait for an act of 
aggression. This is my position. 

Now upon another point, and that the most difficult and deserv- 
ing your most serious consideration, I will speak. That is the 
course which this State should pursue toward these Northern 
States, which by their legislative acts have attempted to nullify 
the Fugitive Slave law. I know that in some of these States 
their acts pretend to be based upon the principles set forth in the 
case of Prigg against Pennsylvania ; that decision did proclaim 
the doctrine that the State officers are not bound to carry out the 
provisions of a law of Congress — that the Federal Government 
can not impose duties upon State officials — that they must execute 
their own laws by their own officers. And this may be true. But 
still it is the duty of the States to deliver fugitive slaves, as well 
as the duty of the General Government to see that it is done. 

Northern States, on entering into the Federal compact, pledged 
themselves to surrender such fugitives ; and it is in disregard of 
their obligations that they had passed laws which even tend to 
hinder or obstruct the fulfillment of that obligation. They have 
violated their plighted faith ; what ought we to do in view of 
this ? That is the question. What is to be done ? By the law 
of nations you would have a right to demand the carrying out of 
this article of agreement, and I do not see that it should be other- 
wise with respect to the States of this Union ; and, in case it be 
not done, we would, by these principles, have the right to commit 
acts of reprisal on these faithless governments, and seize upon 
their property, or that of their citizens, wherever found. The 
States of this Union stand upon the same footing with foreign na- 
tions in this respect. But, by the law of nations, we are equally 
bound, before proceeding to violent measures, to set forth our 
grievances before the offending Government, to give them an op- 
portunity to redress the wrong. Has our State yet done this? 
I think not. 

Suppose it was Great Britain that had violated some compact 
of agreement with the General Government, what would be first 
done? In that case our Minister would be directed, in the first 



15 

instance, to bring the matter to the attention of that Government, 
or a Commissioner be sent to that country to open negotiations 
with her, ask for redress, and it would only be when argument 
and reason had been exhausted, that we should take the last resort 
of nations. That would be the course toward a foreign govern- 
ment, and toward a member of this Confederacy I would recom- 
mend the same course. 

Let us, therefore, not act hastily in this matter. Let your Com- 
mittee on the State of the Republic make out a bill of grievances ; 
let it be sent by the Governor to those faithless States, and if rea- 
son and argument shall be tried in vain — all shall fail to induce 
them to return to their constitutional obligations — I would be for 
retaliatory measures, such as the Governor has suggested to you. 
This mode of resistance in the Union is in our power. It might 
be effectual, and, if in the last resort, we would be justified in the 
eyes of nations, not only in separating from them, but by using 
force. 

[Some one said the argument was already exhausted.] 

Mr. Stephens continued — Some friend says that the argument is 
already exhausted. No, my friend, it is not. You have never 
called the attention of the Legislatures of those States to this sub- 
ject, that I am aware of. Nothing has ever been done before this 
year. The attention of our own people has been called to this 
subject lately. 

Now, then, my recommendation to you would be this : In view 
of all these questions of difficulty, let a convention of the people 
of Georgia be called, to which they may be all referred. Let the 
sovereignty of the people speak. Some think that the election of 
Mr. Lincoln is cause sufficient to dissolve the Union. Some think 
those other grievances are sufficient to dissolve the same, and that 
the Legislature has the power thus to act, and ought thus to act. 
I have no hesitancy in saying that the Legislature is not the prop- 
er body to sever our Federal relations, if that necessity should 
arise. An honorable and distinguished gentleman, the other night 
(Mr. T. R. R. Cobb), advised you to take this course — not to wait 
to hear from from the cross-roads and groceries. I say to you, 
you have no power so to act. You must refer this question to the 
people, and you must wait to hear from the men at the cross-roads 
and even the groceries ; for the people in this country, whether at 



1G 

the cross-roads or the groceries, whether in cottages or palaces, 
are all equal, and they are the sovereigns in this country. Sover- 
eignty is not in the Legislature. We, the people, are the sover- 
eigns. I am one of them and have a right to be heard, and so has 
any other citizen of the State. You, legislators — I speak it re- 
spectfully — are but our servants. You are the servants of the peo- 
ple, and not their masters. Power resides with the people in this 
country. 

The great difference between our country and all others, such 
as France and England and Ireland, is, that here there is popular 
sovereignty, while there sovereignty is exercised by kings and 
favored classes. This principle of popular sovereignty, however 
much derided lately, is the foundation of our institutions. Con- 
stitutions are but the channels through which the popular will may 
be expressed. Our Constitution came from the people. They 
made it, and they alone can rightfully unmake it. 

Mr. Toombs — I am afraid of conventions. 

Mr. Stephens— I am not afraid of any convention legally chosen 
by the people. I know no way to decide great questions aifocting 
fundamental laws except by representatives of the people. The 
Constitution of the United States was made by the representatives 
of the people. The Constitution of the State of Georgia was made 
by representatives of the people chosen at the ballot-box. But do 
not let the question which comes before the people be put to them 
in the language of my honorable friend who addressed you last 
night. Will you submit to abolition rule or resist? 

Mr. Toombs — I do not wish the people to be cheated. 

Mr. Stephens — Now, my friends, how are we going to cheat the 
people by calling on them to elect delegates to a convention to 
decide all these questions without any dictation or direction ? 
Who proposes to cheat the people by letting them speak their own 
un trammeled views in the choice of their ablest and best men, to 
determine upon all these matters involving their peace. 

I think the proposition of my honorable friend had a con- 
siderable smack of unfairness, not to say cheat. He wished 
to have no convention, but for the Legislature to submit their 
vote to the people— submission to abolition rule or resistance? 
Now who, in Georgia, would vote " submission to abolition 
rule " ? 



17 

Is putting such a question to the people to vote on a fair way 
of getting an expression of the popular will on all these questions? 
I think not. Now, who in Georgia is going to submit to abolition 
rule ? 

Mr. Toombs — The convention will. 

Mr. Stephens — No, my friend, Georgia will never clo it. The 
convention will never secede from the Georgia Platform. Under 
that there can be no abolition rule in the General Government. 
I am not afraid to trust the people in convention upon this and all 
questions. Besides, the Legislature were not elected for such a 
purpose. They came here to do their duty as legislators. They 
have sworn to support the Constitution of the United States. 
They did not come here to disrupt this Government. I am there- 
fore for submitting all these questions to a convention of the peo- 
ple. Submit the question to the people, whether they would 
submit to an abolition rule or resist, and then let the Legislature 
act upon that vote ? Such a course would be an insult to the peo- 
ple. They would have to eat their platform, ignore their past 
history, blot out their records, and take steps backward, if they 
should do this. I have never eaten my record or words, and 
never will. 

But how will it be under this arrangement if they should vote 
to resist, and the Legislature should reassemble with this vote as 
their instruction ? Can any man tell what sort of resistance will 
be meant ? One man would say secede ; another pass retaliatory 
measures ; these are measures of resistance against wrong — legit- 
imate and right — and there would be as many different ideas as 
there are members on this floor. Resistance don't mean secession 
— that, in no proper sense of the term, is resistance. Believing 
that the times require action, I am for presenting the question 
fairly to the people, for calling together an untrammeled conven- 
tion, and presenting all the questions to them whether they will 
go out of the Union, or what course of resistance in the Union 
they may think best, and then let the Legislature act, when the 
people in their majesty are heard ; and I tell you now, whatever 
that convention does, I hope and trust our people will abide by. 
I advise the calling of a convention with the earnest desire to pre- 
serve the peace and harmony of the State. I should dislike, above 
all things, to see violent measures adopted, or a disposition to 
2 



take the sword in hand, by individuals, without the authority of 

1& My honorable friend said last night, « I ask you to give me the 
sword, for if yon do not give it to me, as God lives, I will take it 



myself." 

Mr. Toombs— I will. 



* • 1^1™. no doubt that my honorable friend feels 
as h sa It is only his excessive ardor that makes him use such 
an expression • but this will pass off with the excitement of lie 

mm Wn'tke people in their majesty shall speak, I have no 
doubt that he will bow to their will, whatever it may be upon 
the " sober second thought." 

Should Georgia determine to go out of the Union-I speak for 
one Though reviews might not agree with them-whatever ^h 

result may be, I shall bow to the will of her people The cause 

is my Lse, and their destiny is my destiny ; and I trust tins w. 

to the ultimate course of all. The greatest curse that can befall 

'W^S Toll a convention of the people ; let all 
the, ma tor be submitted to it, and when the will of a major.* 
XTeople has thus been expressed, the whole State w, 1 presen 

. • t„,rm n? whi rover mav be demanded lor 

one unanimous voice m favor ot v> liatevci ma) » » 

,. . j.i a ~ n ? +1,0 «pot.1o to o-overn themselves. when 

I believe in the power ot the people 10 & uvu 

wisdom prevails and passion is silent. 

Look it what has already been done by them for t heir a van «► 

mentin all that ennobles man. There .8 nothing like it in the 

hi tory of the world. Look abroad from one extent of the 

on ,7 to the other-contemplate our greatness. We are now 

amon/thc fust nations of the earth. Shall it be said, then, that 

letitutions, founded upon principles of self-government, are a 



our in.- 



failure ? 

' Thus far it is a noble example, worthy of imitation. The gen- 
tleman Mr. Cobb, the other night said it had proven a failure. A 
failure in what? Iu growth? Look at our expanse m national 
1)0 wer. Look at our population and increase m all that makes a 
beople great. A failure? Why, we arc the admiration of the 
.Civilized world, and present the brightest hopes of mankind _ 
* Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations ; that is 
.true, and from that comes a great part of our troubles. 



19 

No, there is no failure of this Government yet. We have made 
great advancement under the Constitution, and I can not but hope 
that we shall advance higher still. Let us be true to our cause. 

Now, when this convention assembles, if it shall be called, as I 
hope it may, I would say in my judgment, without dictation, for 
I am conferring with you freely and frankly, and it is thus that I 
give my views, I should take into consideration all those questions 
which distract the public mind ; should view all the grounds of 
secession so far as the election of Mr. Lincoln is concerned, and I 
have no doubt they would say that the constitutional election of 
no man is a sufficient cause to break up the Union, but that the 
State should wait until he at least does some unconstitutional 
act. 

Mr. Toombs — Commit some overt act. 

Mr. Stephens — No, I did not say that. The word overt is a 
sort of technical term connected with treason, which has come to 
us from the mother country, and it means an open act of rebellion. 
I do not see how Mr. Lincoln can do this unless he should levy 
war upon us. I do not therefore use the word overt. I do not 
intend to wait for that. But I use the word unconstitutional act, 
which our people understand much better, and which expresses 
just what I mean. But as long as he conforms to the Constitution, 
he should be left to exercise the duties of his office. 

In giving this advice I am but sustaining the Constitution of 
my country, and I do not thereby become a Lincoln aid man 
either but a Constitutional aid man. But this matter the conven- 
tion can determine. 

As to the other matter, I think we have a right to pass retali- 
atory measures, provided they be in accordance with the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and I think they can be made such. 
But whether it would be wise for this Legislature to do this now 
is the question. To the convention, in my judgment, this matter 
ought to be referred. Before we commit reprisals on New En- 
gland we should exhaust every means of bringing about a peace- 
ful solution of the question. 

Thus did Gen. Jackson in the case of the French. He did not 
recommend reprisals until he had treated with France, and got 
her to promise to make indemnification, and it was only on her 
refusal to pay the money which she had promised that he reconi- 



20 

mended reprisals. It was after negotiation had failed. I do 
think, therefore, that it would be best, before going to extreme 
measures with our Confederate States, to make a presentation of 
our demands, to appeal to their reason and judgment to give us 
our rights. Then, if reason should not triumph, it will be time 
enough to commit reprisals, and we should be justified in the eyes 
of a civilized world. At least, let the States know what your 
grievances are, and if they refuse, as I said, to give us our rights 
under the Constitution of our country, I should be willing, as a 
last resort, to sever the ties of this Union. 

My own opinion is, that if this course be pursued, and they are 
informed of the consequences of refusal, these States will secede ; 
but if they should not, then let the consequences be with them, 
and let the responsibility of the consequences rest upon them. 
Another thing I would have that convention to do. Re-affirm 
the Georgia platform with an additional plank in it. Let that 
plank be the fulfillment of the obligation on the part of those 
States to repeal these obnoxious laws as a condition of our re- 
maining in the Union. Give them time to consider it, and I 
would ask all States south to do the same thing. 

I am for exhausting all that patriotism can demand before tak- 
ing the last step. I would invite, therefore, South Carolina to a 
conference. I would ask the same of all the other Southern 
States, so that if the evil has got beyond our control, which God, 
in his mercy, grant may not be the case, let us not be divided, 
among ourselves, but, if possible, secure the united co-operation 
of all the Southern States ; and then, in the face of the civilized 
world, we may justify our action ; and, with the wrong all on the 
other side, we can appeal to the God of battles to aid us in our 
cause. But let us not do any thing in which any portion of our 
people may charge us with rash or hasty action. It is certainly a 
matter of great importance to tear this Government asunder. 
You Avcre not sent here for that purpose. I would wish the 
whole South to be united if this is to be done; and I believe, 
if we pursue the policy which I have indicated, this can be 
led. 

In this way our sister Southern States can be induced to act 
with us, and I have but little doubt that the States of New York, 
and Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and the other Western States, will 



21 

compel their Legislatures to recede from their hostile attitudes if 
the others do not. Then with these we would go on without New 
England if she chose to stay out. 

A voice in the assembly — We will kick them out. 

Mr. Stephens — I would not kick them out. But if they chose 
to stay out, they might. I think, moreover, that these Northern 
States, being principally engaged in manufactures, would find that 
they had as much interest in the Union under the Constitution as 
we, and that they would return to their constitutional duty — this 
would be my hope. If they should not, and if the Middle States 
and Western States do not join us, we should at least have an un- 
divided South. I am, as you clearly perceive, for maintaining the 
Union as it is, if possible. I will exhaust every means thus to 
maintain it with an equality in it. My principles are these : ' 

First, the maintenance of the honor, the rights, the equality, the 
security, and the glory of my native State in the Union ; but if 
these can not be maintained in the Union, then I am for their 
maintenance, at all hazards, out of it. Next to the honor and 
glory of Georgia, the land of my birth, I hold the honor and 
glory of our common country. In Savannah I was made to say, 
by the reporters — who very often make me say things which I 
•never did say — that I was first for the glory of the whole country, 
and next for that of Georgia. 

I said the exact reverse of this. I am proud of her history, of 
her present standing. I am proud even of her motto, which I 
would have duly respected at the present time by all her sons — 
Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation. I would have her rights and 
that of the Southern States maintained now upon these principles. 
Her position now is just what it was in 1850, with respect to the 
Southern States. Her platform then has been adopted by most, 
if not all, the other Southern States. Now I would add but one 
additional plank to that platform, which I have stated, and one 
which time has shown to be necessary. 

If all this fails, we shall at least have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that we have done our duty and all that patriotism could re- 
quire. 



ADDRESS OF E. W. GANTT, OF ARKANSAS, 

(Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army) 
IN FAVOR OF RE-UNION IN 1863 



Fellow-Citizens : — Since the third day of June I have been a 
prisoner in the Federal lines. 

Having but recently been through the entire South — having 
studied its resources, and wept over its ruin, and having become 
fully acquainted with its condition, and the character of its rulers, 
I have chosen, after long hesitation, to remain here and address 
you, in preference to being sent home and exchanged. I am now 
out of the service, and can therefore speak with unreserved free- 
dom 

My course in this struggle is known to this country. In the 
army and in prison, with a fire in front and in rear, I have been 
with you and of you so long as hope remained. And to-day I 
know no devotion so strong as that I bear to my Southern home^ 
and to the masses of our people, whose terrible sufferings bind me 
closer to them now than ever. 

I shall give you my views and counsel for what they are worth, 
frankly and fully in this address, and care not for the conse- 
quences to myself. It is the path of duty, and I shall follow it 
fearlessly. 

I shall speak to you as an Arkansian — shall therefore confine 
myself more particularly to what has occurred in our midst since 
the commencement of hostilities, and may thus give a prominence, 
to events and persons, that they would not otherwise deserve. As 
I fear no one, I shall spare no one. 

In the commencement of this unfortunate struggle our State hesi- 
tated ; but when the shock of arms came, she opened her treasury 
and poured out her best blood. Her troops were removed beyond 



24 

the Mississippi River, upon the principle that there was the place 
to defend her soil. We acquiesced. The principle was doubtless 
correct. For a time all things went well enough with us. We 
were only annoyed by partisan feuds and broils — by that selfish 
faction which so long ruled our people and left their debasing in- 
fluences upon society. 

But the poisoned cup had been prepared for us in the very 
beginning. We were destined to drain its dregs to the bottom. 
Our people, plundered, whipped, and Oppressed, were to bow 
their necks to the yoke of a political adventurer, clothed in lace 
and brass buttons, who owed all he was to their kindness and 
charity. Hindman and the Johnsons — names inseparably linked 
with the sorrow and ruin of our people — formed a coalition and 
drew into it the cast-off-scum of all parties. From that day may 
date the ruin of our people, if not of our whole cause. Not that 
I intend attributing to them great force or capacity, but that 
circumstances of long ago, linking Hindman to Davis, and in- 
trigue upon the part of Johnson, were to place Hindman on a larg- 
er wave than a craft of his size could ride securely. So bitter and 
rancorous had been the hatred of these men toward each other, 
that such a union, if made publicly, would have shocked and start- 
led our ueople. But it was done by stealth. It leaked out by de- 
grees. 

The promotion of Captain J. B. Johnson, brother of Robert W. 
Johnson, in Hindman's Legion, at Hindman's instance — the urging 
of Hindman's promotion by Mr. Johnson in the secret and corrupt 
ante-chambers of Richmond politics — the appointment of Mr. John- 
son's near relative on Hindman's staff — the urging of Hindman's 
further promotion — and, stronger and stranger than all, the pro- 
curing, by a trick of Mr. Johnson's, of the transfer of General 
Hindman to this Department, are cumulative evidences of this 
corrupt bargain — a bargain in which the blood and treasure of 
our people were to go to enrich the Johnsons. Hindman was to 
be transferred to this Department, and by his aid a great party was 
to be built up in our midst, and the enemies of the Johnsons put 
down. Having for years used the public treasure to put down 
foes and build up parties, now the blood of the people is to be 
used for the same purpose. 

Mr. Davis was eager to do any thing for Hindman — would 



25 

scruple little about the means or the result to the people ; yet, in 
this instance, he hesitated. Mr. Johnson assured him that our 
people wanted Hindman here. That he was the man for the occa- 
sion. But with all this, Mr. Davis would not send him by " au- 
thority" ; yet, would permit him to be smuggled across. Our 
people were amazed at his advent. More so when they found that 
Mr. Johnson had brought him, and that the press at Little Rock, 
heretofore his abusers, was subservient to him. It was voiceless 
so far as Hindman's usurpations and oppressions might be. No 
other reason has ever yet been given for its mysterious silence 
than the prompt appointment, by Hindman, to positions of influence, 
of near relatives of the editors of these papers. And so the plot 
thickens. 

In all the instances of appointees referred to in this address, I 
do not intend accusing them of complicity with the leaders, and 
may as well say so here. 

"When Hindman came here we had no army on our soil — nor 
indeed any hostile army threatening us. [This needs modification. 
But the threat had passed before the army was organized.] The 
policy of the Confederate authorities had been announced. It 
was that no more regiments should be organized, but that all men 
liable to military duty should be enrolled in regiments then exist- 
ing. This policy was in the way of Hindman's building up, for 
himself and the Johnsons, a great array of satellites, by the " ap- 
pointing power." Therefore, in the teeth of this policy, and dis- 
regarding authority, he organized and officered some forty regi. 
ments. The poor soldier could not choose his own officer. He 
might not choose what would be regarded as Johnson-Hindman 
material. But the creation and continued existence of an officer, 
as such, depended upon Hindman's breath alone. It remained now 
to be seen what one, who had crawled in the dirt before the peo- 
ple, when he wanted place, would do when he held supreme power. 

Among the first acts was to declare martial law all over the 
State, and to appoint patrols of ten, with a captain, in each town- 
ship — a new military organization of his own creation. Among 
their duties was to assist in arresting and imprisoning, without 
charge or complaint, the suspected freemen of Arkansas. And 
many a poor creature, thus torn from home and family, died in a 
loathsome prison, or perished by the wayside. Would you believe 



26 

it, my fellow-citizens, that two or three lines from Hindman or 
one of his subordinates has been all the commitment upon which 
respectable citizens, with their heads shorn, have lingered a 
year in the penitentiary, treated as ordinary convicts? The rec- 
ords are in the city of Little Rock. 

But this is not all. He plundered our people most mercilessly. 
Anarchy and despotism vied in their reign. His Commissary De- 
partment was so miserably managed that, with an abundant coun- 
try to draw and collect supplies from, it was so neglected, that, I 
am told, in many instances he took bread from the mouths of help- 
less women and children, whose only stay and support had perished 
by disease or the bayonet. He assumed to regulate prices. By 
this arbitrary and tyrannical means he caused great suffering, and 
afforded increased facilities for the growth of fraud and crime, 
while all honest men were well nigh impoverished. He ordered 
cotton to be burned in regions remote from navigation, and where 
an army will never tread, and where, if it should come, it could 
not more than transport supplies, much less haul cotton. And he 
sent brutal, rough men to execute these orders. If a citizen com- 
plained, he was snubbed, plundered, or imprisoned. Oftener all 
of these things. Of all these things Jeff. Davis was duly informed. 

When long absence and tales of distress, coming from the plun- 
dered homes of toil-worn soldiers, impelled them, from impulses 
not to be despised, to force their way home, to'stop the cries of 
suffering babes and soothe the sorrows of heart-broken wives, with 
the intention of again returning to their command, he has not 
waited their return, but treated them as deserters, had them hunted 
with negro dogs, and when caught, executed witli a fiendishness 
alike cruel and shocking to humanity. 

lie has, I am told, appointed military commissions which should 
keep no records, and from their midnight recesses spoken away 
the lives of citizen and soldier. In one instance this mysterious 
and worse than Jesuitical tribunal condemned, to six months' im- 
prisonment, a citizen of our State. "With a stroke of his pen he 
raised the penalty to capital punishment, and the victim was accord- 
ingly executed. What the supposed offender did, what he was 
accused of doing, there is no written record left. Voltaire says 
that in Africa. tyrants who execute with their own hands criminals 
condemned to death, are justly called barbarians. He would be 
puzzled for a name for the tryant in this instance. 



27 

In other cases he is said to have caused men to be executed 
without trial, and even to have witnessed their execution. In 
others, again, he is said to have seized citizens and put them upon 
trial before military tribunals, and had them executed. In one 
instance, the offense being Unionism, it was ascertained, after trial 
and sentence, that the supposed offender was a good Southern man. 
A pardon from Hindman was started, but the bearer only reached 
there in time to see the lifeless form of the murdered man being 
borne from the desecrated spot of his execution. Of all these 
things Jefferson Davis was duly informed. 

The story of the two young Texas soldiers I have often heard, 
and never heard it contradicted. They were twin brothers — 
young, handsome, and sprightly. Having just entered the service, 
and from a State noted for its peculiar ideas of personal freedom, 
they supposed that a few days' absence from camp without leave 
would subject them to nothing more than a slight camp punish- 
ment. And having relatives a few miles in the country, whom 
they had not seen for years, they concluded to visit them. Poor 
fellows ! Hindman was fresh from Bragg ! They were hunted 
down, summarily tried, convicted, and the sentence approved in 
one day. The young men, in person, urged their youth and in- 
experience as an excuse, and begged him to let them live, assuring 
him they would show him, if spared, what soldiers they could 
make. Their gray-haired sire, bearing about his person the marks 
of wounds received at the Alamo and upon the battle-fields of 
Mexico, with breaking heart bowed before him and craved par- 
don for his thoughtless and innocent boys. And women, struck 
with their youth and innocence, with tears and entreaties im- 
plored mercy for the unfortunate youths. But in vain. The ty- 
rant was inexorable. The noble youths fell, after a tender and 
touching farewell, victims to the ambition of one who was misled 
by the cruelty of Bragg, and who, in adopting the latter's style 
of discipline, took up the club of Hercules, and so, not being able 
to wield it, degenerated into a mere murderer. 

He turned the Indians against us — thus leaving us defenseless, 
and threatened by a savage foe in the West, besides the loss of 
that whole territory. There was but one man on the continent 
who could control them. Nature, education, habits, and appear- 
ance, had peculiarly fitted him for the task. That man was Gen. 



Albert Pike. Tie should have been permitted to remain there. 
II in. 1 mini and Johnson intrigued him out. Mr. Davis preferred 
risking the loss of that country, and our ruin, to the loss of his 
pet. He even permitted General Pike to be dragged through the 
country, like a common culprit, between a file of soldiers ! What 
hope had a poor down-trodden citizen, when a general officer, and 
he one of the first men of the nation, could be thus treated with 
impunity at the instance of one of Davis' creatures? Of all these 
tilings Jefferson Davis was informed. 

But our people, in the soreness of their agony, and from the 
depths of their oppression, petitioned Mr. Davis for relief. Month 
after month rolled by and no response. Still, month after month 
they groaned, and suffered, and supplicated. Their appeals for 
relief fell upon leaden ears. And while the people suffered, the 
Johnsons and Hindmans feasted and flourished, and were glad. 
But at last the current of agony and complaint was too great. 
The tardy response came. And what, oh, my suffering country- 
men, do you suppose that response is? It is that "Hindman 
is there without authority." What a terrible retribution we had 
a right to expect. The least we could hope — had his acts been 
done by one here by authority— would be that he would meet re- 
moval and prompt punishment — and surely, that one who, here, 
"without authority," had robbed, pillaged, and destroyed — op- 
pressed and murdered, and crushed the very life out of our people, 
would be put upon his trial as a culprit, and meet a felon's doom. 
We shall sec. 

In amazement, you would ask me if Mr. Davis knew of these 
things. All of them. Besides what private citizens all over the 
State had written him, General Pike, in written charges and in 
powerful published pamphlets, made most of it known to him and 
the world. But R. W. Johnson and his followers arc supreme at 
Richmond. lie owns the whole representation from this State, 
except Mr. Garland, who has all the sense and manliness of the 
concern. Verily, the " vessel of State must have been violently 
agitated, or such foul dregs could never have risen to the top!" 
■ One Manly did venture to whisper in his own room, with locked 
doors, !<» u few citizens, about these outrages ; but he locked their 
mouths with a pledge of secresy before they left, lest "Bob John- 
" should think he had turned traitor to him. And poor old 



29 

Mitchel would talk so much on both sides, that, as usual, he neu- 
tralized what he said, while Mr. Garland's utterances were stifled 
between affection on the part of Davis for Hindraan, and sub- 
serviency to Mr. Johnson. The latter gentleman will not desert 
Hindman yet. The harvest of place and power reaped by them 
is too great to lose. Better the people groan and suffer. So, 
after all his wickedness, Hindman is still to remain here. But to 
soothe the public, and blind it, a new man must be brought over — 
one they can use, of course. Mr. Johnson finds him — a weak, 
superannuated old creature, who was made " Lieutenant- General 
Holmes " for this express command — the interests of Arkansas 
being subordinated to that of the Johnsons, and to the hate of 
Mr. Davis — for our poor oppressed people demanded General 
Price — or rather, begged for him piteously, our days for " de- 
manding " having passed. 

The acts of this poor, unfortunate, and pitiable old man are 
known to all. Our people breathed free for a moment after he 
came — for, the press here belonging to the coalition, he was eulo- 
gized excessively. But they soon saw the stroke of Hindman 's 
hand in all his acts. As General Pike justly remarks, his lieu- 
tenant became his master. Holmes revoked none of Hindman's 
odious orders, and the terrible scenes of oppression and plunder 
went on as before. 

"With all this our people were still willing to suffer and to 
bleed, if any military results favorable to us might flow from it. 
Our hopes were disappointed. Military affairs were x neglected. 
Johnson and Hindman were intent on keeping up political pres- 
tige, and even induced poor old General Holmes to use the in- 
fluence of his rank and gold lace upon weak members of the Le- 
gislature in the election for Confederate Senator. Thus the time 
was passed in feasting and dancing, and political wire-working, 
while the poor soldier shivered under the bleak sky, and the poor 
citizen groaned under oppression and wrong, and trembled lest 
the last morsel should at any moment be taken from his helpless 
family. 

General Holmes had no plan of campaign, no conception of 
his duties, and not manliness and honesty enough to give way 
to a better. 

While this state of affairs existed I addressed a letter to Mr. 
Davis, as follows : 



30 

"Sm, if something is not done for Arkansas, we are ruined. 
Our people have been terribly oppressed. They are yet. They 
need relief. They want General Price. Send him, and he will 
winter in Missouri with sixty thousand men. If you don't, this 
Department is gone, and Arkansas must and will seek protection 
elsewhere. 

"General Holmes has no plan of campaign. Hindman is in the 
North-west, with some fifteen thousand men. But the centre, 
under Roane and a few other stupid political appointees of Hon. 
R. W. Johnson, is too far off to support him. The centre, in 
turn, can not be supported by the right under Hindman, or the 
left, under Churchill, at Arkansas Post — while the latter place, if 
attacked, can not be supported, and must fall. Besides, General 
C., although a good soldier, is, in my opinion, incompetent to the 
command. I speak of these things as against offensive movements 
upon the part of the enemy. As for offensive movements upon our 
part, General Holmes has undertaken none. Nor does he even 
contemplate it. If our troops remain here, they ought to go into 
Missouri at once. 

"But, as I said in my last letter, all the soldiers on this side the 
river, except about five thousand mounted men, to keep out ma- 
rauding bands, ought to be sent across the Mississippi River, for 
every man sent from this side the river forces the Federals to 
send one to meet him. Thus Arkansas would be relieved of a 
friendly and hostile army both. Then, holding Vicksburgh and its 
approaches, in the meantime, and our people being left free to sow 
and reap in peace, we can supply the whole army on the east side 
of the river. But, by all means, send Price here, and let him go 
into Missouri. He would be received with the wildest enthusiasm. 
If lie is not sent, we are ruined. 

" I know that certain politicians from our State talk differ- 
ently. They cither don't know what they talk about, or are 
subserving some selfish ends at the cost of the people. I know 
that 1 have long been the victim of petty partisan intrigue there ; 
luit. as having been the chosen representative of half the people 
<»f Arkansas in the Federal Congress, and as that verdict has nev- 
er been Bet aside by them, I have the right to speak, and do, in 
their name and behalf, most solemnly urge these views upon you. 
1 beseech you nut to listen alone to politicians, who, repudiated 



31 

and kicked out of power in 1SG0, were so unmanly as to crawl 
back into like places when the country was in arms. I beseech 
you not to let their selfishness be our ruin. While I would scorn 
to ask this for myself, I can do so cheerfully for my people. 

"This letter, for the present, I desire should be considered as 
private and confidential. Your obedient servant, 

" E. W. Gantt. 

" His Excellency Jefferson Davis." 

My appeals did not even elicit a response. Time wore on. 
My predictions proved true. Hindman was defeated at Prairie 
Grove. His shattered columns, over snow and ice, half clad and 
half fed, wound their toilsome way back to Little Rock. About 
five thousand went home by force. Churchill was attacked at 
Arkansas Post ; but, being cut off from the hope of succor, the 
place was surrendered after a feeble resistance. Mr. Davis had 
been warned time and again of these dangers. But Hindman was 
his pet and prot6ge\ Sending Price would interfere with Hind- 
man, and would likewise give opportunity for distinction to a 
man he hated. This noble and good old man, who is a statesman 
and a soldier, has been meanly and malignantly disparaged and 
oppressed by Mr. Davis since the commencement of the war. 

Our people, after these reverses, were more disheartened than 
ever. They clamored for Hindman's removal and trial. General 
Pike preferred the charges, and went to Richmond in person to 
prosecute them. But Mr. Davis smuggled Hindman back on the 
other side of the river, and gave him the dignified and appro- 
priate position of president of a court of inquiry, to investigate 
the conduct of one other pet of his, General Mansfield Lovell, 
who so ingloriously surrendered New Orleans — commencing in 
Louisiana what Hindman completed in Arkansas. But, as if to 
add insult to injury, Mr. Davis at last " indorses " openly the 
acts of Hindman, and, to add to your shame and humiliation, gives 
him command of a division in Bragg's army. Humanity stands 
appalled, and reason aghast, at such acts of perfidy, baseness, and 
cruelty. 

Oh, my countrymen, your suffering has been indescribable — in- 
conceivable ! We thought we were fighting for constitutional lib- 
erty, when a tyrant was most mercilessly treading that constitution 



32 

under his feet by every act of outrage and oppression that a con- 
quered people can feel. And, after nearly two years of strife, we 
awaken, from a fearful baptism of blood, to the terrible truth 
that the shadow of the despotism which we fled from, under Mr. 
Lincoln, dissolves into nothingness compared to the awful reign 
of tyranny that we have groaned under at the hands of Jefferson 
Davis and his minions. Will we profit by such awakening? It 
remains to be seen. 

The army that Hindman raised and officered here, against au- 
thority, and -"without authority," has, by disease, death, and de- 
sertion, dwindled to a mere handful of men. The same material, 
if it had never been thus organized, or if, after organization, it had 
been sent to Bragg as he entered Kentucky, would have enabled 
him to be on the Ohio line to-dty. It certainly could have held 
Vicksburgh and its approaches, if assigned to that duty. Hence I 
said, in the earlypart of this address, that not only the ruin of 
our State, but of our cause, might be attributed to Hindman and 
the Johnsons. The forty thousand men sacrificed to their am- 
bition could have turned the scale in any State — any Department. 

But with all our sufferings and sorrows, we had hopes of success 
and better things while Vicksburgh held out. But Mr. Davis had 
a pet appointee here. His narrow stubbornness and great vanity 
would not permit him to remove Pemberton, because such removal 
would be an admission that Mr. Davis was wrong. Rather the 
people suffer than such admission. Pemberton was a bad ap- 
pointment — clearly incompetent. Possessing the confidence of 
neither citizen nor soldier, and Mr. Davis cognizant of it, he was 
still retained in command. He lost Vicksburgh. In his Depart- 
ment were sixty thousand troops when General Grant undertook 
tho buhl and hazardous plan of running our batteries at Vicks- 
burgh, and inarching inland, with less than fifty thousand men for 
duty. 

Contrary to all military science and experience, Pemberton 
Bcatters instead of massing his forces. He leaves a weakened 
force, at Port Hudson, flanked on both sides— reduces the garri- 
BOD al Vicksburgh, and leaves small forces at Raymond, Grand 
(lull, Jackson, Yazoo Tity, and other points away up in Missis- 
sippi- General Grant was thus enabled, with his columns massed, 
to whip him in detail. 



33 

After the repulse at Grand Gulf — which forty thousand men on 
the defensive could have prevented, and which were in Pember- 
ton's Department — and the flight from Raymond, General Joe 
Johnston was sent to assume command. That noble officer, de- 
spised by Davis, and not even spoken to by that mercenary wretch, 
Benjamin — who controls, by indirection Davis and Cabinet — 
cheerfully repaired to Jackson. Arrived there, he is said to have 
shed tears over the hopelessness of affairs and the splendid opportu- 
nity lost. You are familiar with the rest — our appalling loss at 
Edward's Depot, and the fall of Vicksburgh and Port Hudson with 
their brave defenders. Thus, with the loss of friends and rela- 
tives, came the blighting of your last hopes. And all to gratify 
the narrow obstinacy, mean selfishness, and personal hate and 
vindictiveness of Jefferson Davis and Judah P. Benjamin. Thus 
Arkansas was cut off from all chance of protection, if hope there- 
of she ever had. And thus stands the case to-day. 

This gentleman has proven himself totally unsuited to the 
emergency. With the whole cotton crop and wealth of the South 
at his disposal, and the friendship of many European Powers, he 
has accomplished nothing abroad. His foreign policy has been a 
stupid failure. He has permitted himself to be over-reached and 
out-managed in every thing. His policy at home, while proving 
him to be strong in some respects, has shown him to be weak, 
mean, and malignant in others. He is cold, selfish, and supremely 
ambitious, and, under the cover of outward sanctity and pa- 
triotism, flows concealed the strongest vein of hypocrisy and 
demagogism. 

He has never been up to the magnitude of the undertaking. 
He refused troops for the war in May, A.D. 1861, because he did 
not " know that they would be needed." His idea at first seems 
to have been that hostilities would soon cease, and he bent his 
energies for a cheap war. His preparations and outfit were ac- 
cordingly contracted and parsimonious. Awakened to a sense of 
his error, his next aim seems to have been to conquer his foes and 
put down every man that had crossed his pathway in life. The 
latter succeeded at all events. Instances of this are numerous ; but 
that of Senator Brown — the peer of Mr. Davis in every thing, his 
superior in many, and his rival and successful competitor for the 
United States Senate — is pointed. He joined a company in Da- 



34 



i „,« Plated captain. He had capacity for any po- 
* ar ^ri Da S - t Poking to the public interest, but to 
sition. Jet f 1 -^' private feelings, sees this opportumty 
the gratification of 1 us °™ J? 1 v { § e refllse d him all pro- 
t0 trikc an ol riva, an embrace^, ^ 

motion, and left kini to i ition elsewhere. Mr. Brown's 

captain of a company, or seefc ngp matter . 

election to the Confederal Senate tor He ^ 

lie drove General Gustavus . s. saccegs of 

once ready to remove Stonewall ^ Jackso ^° J Q |t 

the latter, backed by a P»^.^*Si to let the 
lie ovc-slaughed and ?PP r f ^^ThiagSn, at once, after 
people know that he desired to move on Wasl nn = to 

L first Manassas fight, and was F^*"?"^ ret ained 
General Walker, of Georgia, oh of *^»^ £ outrages . 
Hindman, in Arkansas, with a P°» tT9 f '3£ Holmes tore, 
He removed him but to endorse his acts. He retains llo 
to gratify the Johnsons, at the ruin of ™ I™^^^ was 
and oppressed 0^ *»**?££ -W« « retained 
made a brigadier in Mexico, » a ^^"the army and the 
Pemberton in command again t to w.sto ot y ^ ^ 

country, and, to add insult to it all ^end ^ woman , a „d child. 

command, where to ,s X^/gSTe Johnston away 

By a trick and a swindle he got general is 

ton, his command in Virginia, and gave him no otto defini to po 

Lion until there was M^£^£££££ 
m agchim-thcreby showing both hswaa^ etc ? ^ ^ 

the whole Indian country, and if thewa -eon* , ^ ^ 

srr^r a ^tiinSoa brr a = 

c torn in council, that he may reign as solo despo over o.r 
*,,.,, He has had at his disposal physical force enough to ca y 
L acts the most arbitrary and oppressive. Ho has «£ ** 
fm ,.o. He has shown his selfishness and d sregar I for the , uteres 
■ of the people by his appointment of Heath V ^o™,D«fcTay 
,,„. DavU,»ed Mansfield Lovcll-all relatives of Ins, and all alike 
J,,,,,,,,;,. He has alienated the people of Gcorg.a-so mm* 
so, that were the Confederacy acknowledged to-day, Georgial 



35 

would not remain two years under him. I heard a Confederate 
General of great prominence, who understands the feeling in that 
State, so declare. And, as significant of this, Governor Brown 
of Georgia, gave to General G. W. Smith, meanly and spitefully 
driven out of the army by Davis, the presidency of the Etowah 
iron works, with a salary larger than that of his salary as Lieut- 
enant-General. He falsified all his promises to Kentucky, and took 
General Humphrey Marshall's command away from him, turning 
it over to his old political rival, General Preston, to gratify the 
partisan requirements of Kentucky citizens who had suddenly 
risen from the obscure position of pork packers to that of Sen- 
ators and Representatives in the Confederate Congress, and jug- 
glers in that political Sodom. In a word, he has enriched and 
honored his friends, ruined and impoverished his enemies. Has 
given over the people, those of Arkansas especially, to plunder 
and oppression by his favorites, and in no instance punished the 
offender. I admit that in some things he looms up above other 
men ; but he has so many defects and weaknesses beneath others, 
that it reduces him to a very poor second-rate character. And 
you can never change him. His life has been warped by political 
intrigue. His prejudices have been narrowed and his hates em- 
bittered by years of partisan strife. And you had as well take 
the oak which has been bent while a twig and beat upon by the 
storms of centuries, when its boughs are falling off and its trunk 
decaying, and attempt to straighten it up toward Heaven, as to 
attempt the straightening of a character so warped and bent by 
years of political storm and intrigue. 

What shall we do ? This question naturally comes up after all 
that has preceded. If Mr. Davis, when he held the lives and for- 
tunes of many millions in his hands, so blundered as to lose his 
opportunity, what can we hope from him now that a scene of 
blackness, of anguish and desolation reigns where wealth, happi- 
ness, and plenty smiled ? If he would not protect Arkansas when 
he could, but, instead, gave it over to oppression and plunder by 
his pets, what have we to hope now that he trembles in Richmond 
for his own safety, and wakes up at last to the terrible reality of 
e h his folly, weakness, and indiscretion? If we were not protected 
jli I when we could have been, and if we can not now be protected, 
ia j'what must we do? Some say continue the struggle. Let the 
last man die, etc. 



36 

I think differently. We ought to end the struggle and submit. 
But you say, it is humiliating. No more than to surrender when 
whipped. We have done that often — always where we could do 
no better. I have tried the experiment twice, and found it by no 
means foolish. Submission is but surrender. We are fairly 
beaten in the whole result, and should at once surrender the 
point. 

If we don't get the happiness we enjoyed in the old government, 
we can get no more misery than we have felt under Jefferson Da- 
vis. But I look for peace there. We had it many years. Even 
while we are arrayed against it, I find that hostile forces in our 
midst give more protection to citizens than they had when Holmes 
and Ilindman were here. It is true the Johnsons tell you that 
General Steele has imprisoned and oppressed people here. Not 
a word of truth in it. And they know it is all false. In a few 
months, when no more Confederate money can be invested, and 
nothing more made out of the people, they will sneak back and 
claim his protection. 

But we are whipped — fairly beaten. Our armies arc melting, 
and ruin approaches us. Will continuing this struggle help us? 
Every battle we might gain ought to wring tears from the hearts 
of Southern men ! We are just that much weaker — that much 
nearer our final ruin. Anguish and sorrow and desolation meet 
us wherever we turn. The longer the struggle the more of it. 

Don't let yourselves be deceived with the hope that the United 
States will abandon the struggle. They can never do it. They 
have toiled and spent too much to see the solution of the problem, 
and not foot up the figures. They scarcely feel the war at home. 
Their cities are more populous and thrifty to-day than ever. For 
every man who dies, or gets killed in battle, two emigrate to the 
country. Their villages and towns, their fields and country flou- 
rish as fresh as ever. They could sink their armies to-day. and 
raise new levies to crush us and not feel it. 

How is it with us? The last man is in the field. Half our 
territory overrun. Our cities gone to wreck, peopled alone by 
the aged, the lame and halt, and women and children ; while de- 
serted towns, and smoking ruins, and plantations abandoned and 
laid waste, meet us on all sides, and anarchy and ruin, disappoint- 
ment and discontent lower over all the land. 



37 

You rely upon foreign intervention. Alas, and alas ! How 
many lives, lio'pes, and fortunes have been buried under this fatal 
delusion ! It has held us on to a hopeless struggle while the belt 
of desolation has girdled us closer, and the sea of anguish and 
sorrow risen higher, flushed with the tears of ruined and bereaved 
ones. France will not interfere. Louis Napoleon has at heart 
the building of the transit route connecting the two oceans. If 
he can keep up this struggle until that is accomplished, the star of 
England's ascendency on the ocean goes out before him, and the 
whole commercial world becomes subsidiary to him. To keep up 
this struggle he will delude us continually with false hopes, reck- 
ing nothing how much we bleed and suffer. I even suspect the 
pretended loans to us in France rest upon a policy of this sort, 
and that he is at the bottom of it. 

But if Louis Napoleon does propose to interfere and take us 
under his " protection," what then ? Another Maximilian for us — 
for Americans ! " Forbid it my countrymen ! Forbid it heaven !" 
Our fathers threw off colonial dependence upon a European 
crowned head ! It would be ignominous in us to go back a half 
century and more to accept what they freed us from. Much less 
to risk a despot over us. So eager are some of our leaders for 
this interference that I am told it is proposed to give Napoleon 
Texas as a bonus for his good graces and his kindly aid ! And 
the " Lone Star " may be handed over by Davis at any moment, 
so far as lie can do it. The thought ought to make the blood of 
every American citizen mount to his cheek. Whenever this is 
attempted I shall be one to meet the legions of France, under the 
old flag, to battle for the sacredness and safety of republican insti- 
tutions. But suppose he offers recognition alone? It is a barren 
offering. Suppose he offers it coupled with assistance ? It comes 
too late. Timeo Danaos munera f creates ! No more dangerous 
and destructive alliance, in our prostrate condition, could be 
formed, however eagerly we might, at first, have grasped it. For, 
even if we should succeed with his aid — and the struggle would be 
as doubtful as terrible (and he would abandon us at any moment), 
the French empire of Mexico, right at our doors, would swallow up 
Cuba and all the contiguous islands, and absorb that part of Mex- 
ico that we, as a nation, would hope to get. And the day we settle 
deliberately a monarchy on this side of the ocean, we prepare 



38 

crowns for kings and fetters for the people on every foot of ground 
upon the American continent. But, as I said, there will be no 
interference. 

Have no hopes from a divided North. It is on the surface — 
scarcely goes to the bottom of their polities, much less shaking the 
great masses of their determined people. Remember, too, that 
much of the South is with them. There is no division so far as 
fighting us is concerned. The mildest of them simply propose 
peace by reconstruction. That rejected, they are to press us with 
redoubled energy. Let us not, after all our misfortunes, construe 
the struggle between politicians for place into a sympathy for our- 
selves. But how could they propose peace ? Who would bring 
the message? To whom would it be delivered? And should the 
proposition be made and rejected, we are that much worse off 
for it. We must propose peace, for we ought to know when we 
have got enough of the thing. 

Do not rely upon splitting up our army, and adopting the Guer- 
rilla mode of warfare. It will contribute nothing to the general re- 
sult and only entail more suffering. If practiced behind the Federal 
lines, it subdues our own people. It converts many of our soldiers 
into robbers and plunderers, and brings down, oftentimes, terrible 
retribution upon the heads of our citizens. What does the shoot- 
ing of a few friends and foes on a railroad train amount to? 
And your own friends, as prisoners, going or returning, are on 
nearly all of them. In order to shoot a citizen or soldier opposed 
to you, you risk taking the life of a relative, a friend, or perhaps a 
brother soldier, who, having lingered long in prison, is returning 
with his sad heart full of home and loved ones. 

xlnd then to fire upon steamboats- It is dangerous to your 
friends — unmanly and unsoldierly in the extreme. Before a city 
is fired upon, it is the duty of the commanding officer to give his 
adversary reasonable notice to remove the women, children and 
non-combatants. Steamboats always have more or less of this 
class of people on board. A single shot may destroy a steamboat 
with all its passengers. How much stronger, then, the reason not 
to fire upon it until a like notice is served ? 

A few days since a Confederate officer was aboard a transport 
with his family. The boat was fired upon by guerillas. He 
stepped forward and entreated the party not to fire, that their 

f 



39 

friends were on board. A ball entered his heart, and his widow 
and orphans are in the care of strangers. He was the only per- 
son touched. 

On the boat that transported us were the wives, sisters, and 
mothers of Missouri soldiers, who had* left home and country to 
join their husbands and relatives in the Southern army. How 
terrible was the thought which often occurred to me on our trip, 
that the ball of the guerilla, in the foolish hope of killing a foe, 
might go to the heart of his homeless wife, then throbbing with 
anxiety to be once more pressed to his manly bosom. And this is 
a constant danger. Not a boat but contains more or less of these 
people. 

But this mode of warfare, while contributing nothing toward 
the general result, breaks up the peace of communities. It has 
never whipped an army ; never retarded its progress ; never cut off 
its supplies, nor interfered materially with its operations. It recoils 
upon us invariably. For instance, we fall back before the enemy. 
Our family is loft in his lines. The country around them has been 
devastated. The United States authorities permit the bringing of 
supplies. We fire upon their transports. No more supplies come, 
and our families are left on the verge of "starvation. This thing 
has occurred both in Tennessee and Arkansas. I implore all of 
our citizens within the Federal lines to remain at home and keep 
quiet. Let West Tennessee be a warning to you. Long since, 
that country would have been quiet and the people recovering from 
their losses, had it not been infested with guerillas, who, abandon- 
ing warfare, have plundered friend and foe, and kept life and prop- 
erty insecure. Indeed, a detailed account of their acts would be 
sickening and disgusting in the extreme. As the federal army ad- 
vances through Arkansas let the sunlight of peace be behind it, 
however dark and threatening the cloud ahead. If we do not 
robbers and freebooters will take posession of our soil, and soon 
depopulate and convert it into a waste. 

I am asked if Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation will 
stand. If you continue the struggle, certainly. He has the physi- 
cal force at his disposal to carry it out. If you cease now, you 
mav save all in your hands, or compromise on gradual emancipa- 
tion. But let, I beseech you, the negro no longer stand in the 
way of the happiness and safety of friends and kindred. 

t 



40 

The changes of sentiment upon this question in the South have 
been curious. Not many years since it was by no means unusual 
for the press and public men, as well as for the people generally 
in the South, to concede that slavery was an evil, and regret that 
it should ever have existed ; expressing, however, no disposition 
or desire to be rid of it. Yet, a few years more — the demand for 
cotton having increased, the price of negroes having advanced, 
and the agitation of the slavery question having increased in vir- 
ulence — finds us defending slavery as a divine institution. DeBow's 
Review, and other Southern papers and periodicals, with Senator 
Hammond, of South Carolina, were prominent in this defence. 
Their object was to educate the Southern mind to this belief. 
Such a course had become vital to the existence of slavery ; be- 
cause, to concede that negro slavery was morally wrong, was vir- 
tually to concede the whole argument to the Abolitionists. As the 
controversy warmed we became sensitive, and so morbidly so, that 
the North might have threatened with impunity to deprive us of 
horses, or other property — yet the whole South would be ablaze if 
some fanatic took one negro. Such was the public sentiment 
South at the commencement of this most unfortunate and bloody 
struggle. But revolutions shake up men's thoughts and put them 
in different channels. I have recently talked with Southern slave- 
holders from every State. They are tired of negro slavery, and 
believe they could make more clear money, and live more peace- 
ably without than with it. As for the non-slaveholder of the 
South, I honestly thought the struggle was for him more than for 
his wealthy neighbor. That to free the negro would reduce to 
comparative slavery the poor white man. I now regret, that 
instead of a war to sustain slavery, it had not been a strug- 
gle at the ballot box to colonise it. This will clearly be the next 
struggle. 

I am of opinion that, whether it is a divine institution or not, 
negro slavery has accomplished its mission here. A great mis- 
sion it had. Anew and fertile country had been discovered and 
must be made useful. The necessities of mankind pressed for its 
speedy development. Negro slavery was the instrument to effect 
this. It alone could open up the fertile and miasmatic regions of 
the South, solving the problem of their utility, which no theorist 
could have reached. It was the magician which suddenly revolu 



41 

tionized the commerce of the world by the solution of this prob- 
lem. It peopled and made opulent the barren hills of New Eng- 
land, and threw its powerful influence across the great North-west. 
Standing as a wall between the two sections, it caught and rolled 
northward the wealth and population of the Old World, and held 
in their places the restless adventurers of New England, or turned 
them along the great prairies and valleys of the West. Thus 
New England reached its climax, and the North-west was over- 
grown of its ago, while the South, with its negro laborers, was 
sparsely settled and comparatively poor. Thus slavery had done 
its utmost for New England and the North-west, and was a weight 
upon the South. If, at this point, its disappearance could have 
clearly commenced, what untold suffering and sorrow might have 
been avoided. 

Its existence had become incompatible with the existence of the 
Government. For, while it had stood as a wall, damming up the 
current and holding back the people and laborers of the North, 
it had, by thus precluding free intercourse between the sections, 
produced a marked change in their manners, customs, and senti- 
ments, and the two sections were growing more divergent every 
day. This wall, or the Government — one must give way. The 
shock came which was to settle the question. I thought that the 
Government was divided, and negro slavery established forever. 
I erred. The Government was stronger than slavery. Re-union 
is certain, but not more certain than the downfall of slavery. As 
I have said, the mission of the latter is accomplished. And, as his 
happiness must always be subordinated to that of the white man, 
he must, ere long, depart on the foot-prints of the red man, whose 
mission being accomplished, is fast fading from our midst. 

While I think the mission of the negro is accomplished here, I 
am clearly of the opinion that the time will come when civiliza- 
tion and learning shall light up the dark abodes of the four hun- 
dred million people in India, and when their wants and necessities 
will put the patient and hardy negro to toiling, and opening up 
the great valley of the fertile but miasmatic America. But such 
speculations are out of place here. 

Let us, fellow citizens, endeavor to be calm. Let us look these 
new ideas and our novel position squarely in the face. We fought 
for negro slavery. We have lost. We may have to do without 



42 

it. The inconvenience will be great for a while — the loss heavy. 
This, however, is already well nigh accomplished. Yet behind 
this dark cloud is a silver lining, if not for us, at least for our 
children. In the place of these bondsmen will come an immense 
influx of people from all parts of the world, bringing with them their 
wealth, arts, and improvements, and lending their talents and 
sinews to increase our aggregate wealth. Thrift, and trade, and 
a common destiny will bind us together. Machinery in /the hills 
of Arkansas will reverberate to the music of machinery in New 
England, and the whir of Georgia spindles will meet responsive 
echoes upon the slopes of the far off Pacific. Protective tariffs, 
if needed, will stretch in their influence from the Lakes to the Gulf, 
and from ocean to ocean, bearing alike, at last, equally upon 
Arkansian and Yermonter, and upon Georgian and Califomian. 
Differences of section and sentiment will wear away and be for- 
gotten, and the next generation be more homogeneous and united 
than any since the days of the Revolution. And the descendants 
of these bloody times will read, with as much pride and as little 
jealousy, of these battles of their fathers, as the English and 
Scotch descendants of the heroes of Flodden Field read of their 
ancestral achievements in the glowing lines of Scott, or, as the 
descendants of Highland and Lowland chiefs, allusions to their 
fathers' conflicts iu the simple strains of the rustic Burns. 

Let us live in hope, my grief-stricken brothers, that the day 
is not far distant when Arkansas will rise from the ashes of her 
desolation, to start on a path of higher destiny, than, with negro 
slavery, she ever could have reached ; while the reunited Govern- 
ment, freed from this cankering sore, will be more vigorous and 
powerful, and more thrifty, opulent and happy, than though the 
scourge of war had never desolated her fields, or made sorrowful 
her hearthstones ! 

The sooner we lay down our arms and quit this hopeless strug- 
gle, the sooner our days of prosperity will return. 

I hesitated long, my fellow citizens, before I determined to issue 
this address. I dislike to be abused and slandered. But, more 
than all, dislike to live under a cloud with those friends who have 
not yet reached my stand-point — and, besides, all I possess is in the 
Confederate lines. Their leaders will deprive my family of slaves, 
home, property, debts due me — in a word, reduce them from 



45 

competence and ease to penury. Aside from what I have inside 
the Confederate lines, I could not pay for the paper this address is 
written upon. But it may all go. Did I desire future promotion, 
and could bring my conscience to it, I would do like the Johnsons ; 
safe from bullets and hardships themselves, they assist in holding 
you on to this hopeless and ruinous struggle, and at the end of the 
conflict will come back and say : — * I staid with you to the last !" 
" Honor me and mine." God deliver me from such traitors to 
humanity and to the interests of our bleeding people ! To me the 
path of duty is plain. It is to lend my feeble aid to stop this use- 
less effusion of blood. And though it beggars my family, and 
leaves me no ray of hope for the future, I shall follow it. 

I have witnessed the desolation of the Southern States from one 
end to the other. This hopeless struggle but widens it. Each 
day makes new graves, new orphans, and new mourners. Each 
hour flings into this dreadful whirlpool more of wretched hopes, 
broken fortunes, and anguished hearts. The rich have mostly 
fallen. The poor have drunk deep of the cup of sorrow, while 
surely, and not slowly, the tide of ruin, in its resistless surge, sweeps 
toward the middle classes. A few more compaigns and they will 
form part of the general wreck. Each grave and each tear, each 
wasted fortune and broken heart, puts us that much further off 
from the object of the struggle, and that much further off from 
peace and happiness. 

Viewing it thus, the terrible question was presented to me. as 
to whether I should continue my lot in an enterprise so fruitless 
and so full of woe, and help hold the masses of the people on to 
this terrible despotism of Davis, where only ruin awaits them ; or 
whether I should be a quiet observer of it all ; or, lastly, whether I 
should assist in saving the remnant of you from the wreck. 

I have chosen the latter. I shall send this address to every hill 
and corner of the State, to the citizen and soldier — at home or in 
prison, and shall send with it my prayers, to Almighty God, to 
arrest them in their pathway of blood and ruin. Why trust Davis 
longer. Had he twice our present resources, he would still fail. 
With success he would be a despot. But the whole thing is tumb- 
ling to pieces. Soldiers are leaving disgusted and disheartened, 
and whole States have gone back to their homes in the national 
galaxy ; Maryland and Delaware will never again be shaken. Ken. 



tuck}' has intrenched herself in the Union behind a wall of bayonets 
in the hands of her own sturdy sons. Missouri is as firmly set in the 
national galaxy as Massachusetts. Tennessee, tempest-tossed and 
bolt riven, under the guidance of her great pilot, steers for her 
old mooring, and will be safely anchored before the leaves fall ; 
while the rays of light from the old North State, flashing out fit- 
fully from her darkness accross the troubled waves, show that 
she stirs, is not lost, but is struggling to rejoin her sisters. None 
of these States will ever join the South again. Then, with crippled . 
armies, with devastated fields — with desolate cities, with disheart- 
ened soldiers, and, worse than all, with weak and corrupt leaders 
what hope is left to the few remaining States, but especially to 
poor, oppressed, and down-trodden Arkansas ? None ! Better 
get our brothers home while they are left to us. Open the way 
for the return of husbands, fathers and sons, and bind up the brok. 
en links of the old Union. The people must act to do this. I tell 
you now, in grief and pain, that the leaders don't care for your 
blood. Your sufferings move them not. The tears and wails of 
your anguished and bereaved ones fall on hearts of flint. While 
they can make a dollar, or wear an epaulet, they are content. 
Finally, with a grief-stricken and sorrowful heart, I implore moth. 
ers, sisters, wives, and daughters, to assist, by all their arts, in sav- 
ing their loved ones from this terrible scourge, ere ruin overtakes 
you and them irretrievably. While God gives me strength, 
daunted by no peril, and swerved by no consideration of self, I 
shall give you my feeble aid. 

To break the force of these utterances, honestly, patriotically 
and sorrowfully made, the Johnsons and certain reptiles who 
crawl around Little Rock, under Federal protection, together with 
all other like men, who, from their own innate corruption, arc not 
able to appreciate pure motives in others, will tell you that a de- 
sire to go to Congress has influenced my conduct. Do they suppose 
that I would lose the last dollar I have, and subject myself to 
their slander and abuse for the chance of running for an office 
when peace is made? Docs not my refusing, upon principle, to 
take my seat in Congress in 1SG0, after a triumphant election, in 
which I carried twenty-two out of twenty-eight counties, show 
them what little value I set upon such a bauble ? But I will stop 
their mouths by the solemn assurance that there are not people 



45 

enough on the continent to induce me to go to Congress. I am, 
sick, tired and disgusted with public life ? Peace ? peace, and the 
safety of what is left of our noble and suffering people, is my only 
ambition ! We must bear in mind, too, as Ave go along, that in 
conceding the chance of a " Congress," they acknowledge the fail- 
ure of the Confederate cause. 

The shortest way, in my opinion, to resume our relations with 
the Federal government, is to instruct Hon. W. K. Sebastian to 
take his seat in the United States Senate. It is by all means 
desirable that such instructions be so clear that the United States 
Government may be at no loss to see that our people are loyal, 
and that Mr. Sebastian may have but one course of conduct left. 
I feel sure that he will respond favorably to your wishes. 

Whenever it can be done, meetings should be held promptly, 
instructing him to resume his seat in the Senate. Where it can 
not be done, or where citizens can not attend meetings, let them 
get up petitions to that effect. The proceedings of such meetings, 
and the petitions, if sent to me, at this place, will receive prompt 
attention. We should do all this before the meeting of Congress 
in December. We will have trade open, and get all the other 
benefits of a government that much sooner. 

I must publicly acknowledge, here, my regret for the strong 
terms of disapprobation I used toward that distinguished gentle- 
man, Hon. W. K. Sebastian, for his refusal to join us in this 
struggle. 

To those who differed from me in the commencement of this re- 
bellion — the extent and bloodiness of which no mortal could fore- 
see — I must say, that developments show that you were right and 
I wrong. But let bygones be forgotten, and let us all unite to 
bring about peace, and to lure our lost Pleiad from her wander- 
ings, that she may again sparkle in our nation's coronet of stars. 

Your fellow citizen, 

E. W. GANTT. 

Little Rock, October 7, 1863. 



1 



OFFICERS OF THE 

LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

863 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



President 
CHARLES KING. 

Treasurer. 
MORRIS KETCHUM. 

Secretary. 
JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, Jr. 

Finance Committee. 
CHARLES BUTLER, Chairman. 
GEORGE GRISWOLD. JACKSON S. SCHULTZ. 

MORRIS KETCHUM, A. C. RICHARDS, 

CHARLES H. MARSHALL, L. P. MORTON, 

HENRY A. HURLBUT, SETH B. HUNT. 

THOMAS N. DALE, DAVID DOWS, 

WILLIAM A. HALL. JOSIAII M. FISKE. 

T. B. CODDINGTON, JAMES McKAYE. 

Publication Committee. 
FRANCIS LIEBER, Chairman. 
G. P. LOWERY, Secketarv. 

Executive Committee. 
WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, Chairman. 
GEORGE WARD NICHOLS, Secretary. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



012 027 609 8 

The Loyal Publication Society has already issued a large 
number of Slips and Pamphlets, which have been widely cir- 
culated. Among the most important are the following : 

Xo. 1. Future of the North- West. By Robert Dale Owen. 

2. Echo from the Army. 

3. Union Mass Meetings. Speeches of Brady, Van Buren,'etc. 

4. Three Voices : the Soldier, Farmer, and Poet. 

5. Voices from the Army. 
(J. Northern True Men. 

7. Speech of Major-General Butler. 

8. Separation; War without End. Ed. Laboulaye. 
'.). The Venom and the Antidote. 

10. A Few Words in Behalf of the Loyal Women of the United States. 

By One of Themselves. 

11. No Failure for the North. Atlantic Monthly. 

12. Address to King Cotton. Eugene Pellctan. 

13. How a Free People Conduct a Long War. Siille. 
L4. The Preservation of the Union a National Economic Necessity. 

15. Elements of Discord in Secessia, etc. 

16. No Party now, but all for our Country. Francis Licher. 

17. The Cause of the War. Col. Charles Anderson. 
IS. Opinions of the early Presidents and of the Fathers of the Republic 

upon Slavery, and upon Negroes as Men and Soldiers. 
1 0. (iinheit unb gvetfydt, son § c r m a it n 3la\t c r. 

20. Military Despotism ! Suspension of the Habeas Corpus ! etc. 

21. Letter addressed to the Opera-Honse Meeting. Cincinnati. By. Col. 

Charhs Anderson. 
'22. Emancipation is Peace. By Robert Bale Owen. 
23. Letter of Peter Cooper on Slave Emancipation. 
21. Patriotism. Sermonby Reo.Jos.Fransioli,olBt. Peter's (Catholic) 

Ohnrch, Brooklyn. 

25. The Conditions of Reconstruction. By Robert Dale Owen. 

26. Letter to the President. By Gen. A. J- Hamilton, of Texas. 

27. Nullification and Compromise: a Retrospective View. 

28. The Death of Slavery. Letter from Peter Cooper to Cor. Seymour. 

29. Slavery Plantations and the Yeomanry. By Francis Lieber. 
.".o. Rebel Conditions of Peace. 

;!l. Address ill' the Loyal Leagues of the Slate of New York. 

32. War Powers of the President. By ./. Heermans. 

::.'!. The Two Ways of Treason. 

34. Monroe Doctrine. By Edward Everett. Letter from John Quincy 

Adams. Extract from Speech ill George Canning. 
;;."•. The Arguments of Secessionists. 
3(5. Prophecy and Fulfillment. Letter of A. 11. Stephens. Address of 

L. W. Oantt. 



Loyal Leagues, Chilis, or individuals, may obtaiu any of our 
Publications at the cosl price, by application to th<^ Executive 
Committee) or b) calling at the Rooms of the Society, No. 863 

Broadway, where all information may l btained relating- to 

the Society. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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